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Free tool · Self-assessment

The Life’s Principles Audit

A free self-guided tool for assessing how your system is functioning against universal patterns found across living systems and refined through 3.8 billion years of evolution and adaptation.

Start the auditHow to use it
Five principles30–45 minutes on your ownNothing leaves your browserPrintable
Abstract layered organic forms
Reference

Before you get started, quick logistics

What are Life’s Principles?

Life’s Principles are patterns that appear everywhere life persists. They can be seen at very different scales, from a single cell to a redwood forest to a coral reef. Together, they reflect how life has evolved within the conditions of this planet: finite resources, natural cycles, gravity, and systems that are continuously changing while maintaining dynamic balance.

That universality is what makes them useful as design standards. Each recurring pattern points to an adaptive strategy that has helped living systems persist and evolve under real-world conditions. If a strategy appears again and again across life, it offers a useful reference point for examining the systems we create.

There are 27 Life’s Principles in total: six master Life’s Principles, with the remaining sub-Life’s Principles nested within them. In applying biomimicry to human systems, we do not use the Life’s Principles within the “Use Life-Friendly Chemistry” set, which is why this audit focuses on the 5 other master Life’s Principles. For a more in-depth tool focused on all 27 of the Life’s Principles, see the section on Guided Tools.

How this tool uses them

Life’s Principles can be used at different stages of a design process. At the beginning of a project, they can guide the design itself, increasing the likelihood that what you build produces the resilience, adaptability, and regenerative capacity we see in the living world. They can also be used later as an evaluation lens.

This tool uses them in the second way. It is an audit of a system that already exists. The goal is not to score or rank your system, but to help you see more clearly where its current design supports long-term health and viability, and where gaps may be contributing to unnecessary fragility.

Use it on your own or with a team
On your own

The fastest way in. Work through all the Life’s Principles in one sitting, or take one at a time across a week. Solo use is especially good for a first pass, when you want to understand the framework before bringing it to other people. Expect 30 to 45 minutes.

With a team

Using the audit with a team surfaces different perspectives, uncovers information that may not otherwise come forward, and builds a stronger shared understanding of how the system is functioning. Over time, that shared understanding can support greater alignment.

One useful approach is to have each person complete the audit independently before coming together. Differences in perspective can be some of the most valuable findings. If two people experience the same system very differently, that is important information in itself.

When you come together, move through the Life’s Principles one at a time, pausing where there are significant differences or surprises. Leave room for real conversation rather than racing through every prompt, and save time at the end to name the themes and tensions that emerged across the full audit. Before beginning, make sure everyone is evaluating the same system at the same scale.

Across an organization

Run the same audit with several teams or levels of management, each defining the system it is evaluating at its own scale. Then compare. The goal is to look for patterns, not agreement. If the same principle emerges as a weakness across multiple levels, that may point to a structural issue. If it is strong in some parts and weak in others, the difference may point to practices, culture, or resourcing that needs further attention.

Practical notes

Time. A first pass on your own may take 30–45 minutes, though you can spend more or less depending on the system and how deeply you want to reflect. With a group, plan for substantially more time so there is room for real conversation.

Nothing you write leaves your browser. This tool runs entirely on your own device. There is no account, no submission, no live AI, and nothing is stored or sent anywhere beyond it. Your answers stay on this device so you can return to them, and Clear removes them.

You can also print a blank copy and complete it by hand — especially useful for a group session.

Life’s Principles developed by Biomimicry 3.8

Life’s Principles were developed by Biomimicry 3.8 and are used here with attribution. The framing, reflection prompts, and application to human systems design are Terradigm’s. Terradigm is a nature-informed strategy platform translating 3.8 billion years of evolutionary intelligence to reimagine the complex systems we depend on.

Step 1 · Set up

Step one: name your system

Every question in this audit refers to “your system.” Before you begin, decide what system you are evaluating and write it down. Be specific and stay at the same scale throughout.

Choose a system you can actually observe and influence. It works at any scale — a team or department, an entire organization, a coalition or network, a specific program or campaign, a governance structure, or a place-based community system. If the system is too broad, your answers may become vague. If it is too narrow, you may miss dynamics that shape how it functions. When in doubt, choose the smallest system that still captures the challenge you want to examine.

Be specific. “Our regional organizing team” may be more useful than “our organization.”
Some people find it valuable to return to this audit in six months and compare. Noting the date makes that comparison possible.

Nothing you write leaves your browser. There is no account, no submission, no live AI, and nothing is stored or sent anywhere beyond this device. Your answers stay here as you type, so you can close the tab and come back; Clear removes them.

Assessing
your system
0 of 5 noted
Step 2 · The five master Life’s Principles

Step two: evaluate your system using Life’s Principles

These are a set, not a sequence. Work them in whatever order is useful. If a reflection question does not apply to your system, skip it. The questions under each principle are prompts to help you think, not a checklist. The two response boxes are where you capture what matters most.

01

Evolve to Survive

Evolve to Survive means continually incorporating and embodying information to ensure enduring performance. It achieves this by repeating approaches that have demonstrated success; using mistakes to generate new forms or functions; and recombining and modifying information to produce new possibilities.

Reflection prompts
  • How does your system continuously integrate information in ways that support its lasting performance?
  • How does your system repeat the approaches that have demonstrated success?
  • How does your system use mistakes to generate new forms or functions?
  • How does your system recombine and modify information to produce new possibilities?
What is your system already doing here that’s worth continuing or building on?
Where is your system missing chances to evolve based on what’s happened or through new information?
Next: Adapt to Changing Conditions →
02

Adapt to Changing Conditions

Adapt to Changing Conditions means appropriately responding to dynamic contexts. It achieves this by using varied forms, processes, and systems to effectively engage with its external context; continually investing energy and matter to heal, sustain, and improve the system; and preserving function after disruption through variation, redundancy, and decentralization.

Reflection prompts
  • How does your system adjust appropriately as conditions change?
  • How does your system use varied forms, processes, and systems to effectively engage with its external context?
  • How does your system continually invest energy and matter to heal, sustain, and improve itself?
  • How does your system preserve function after disruption through variation, redundancy, and decentralization?
What is your system already doing well to adapt to changing conditions?
Where does your system struggle to adapt and adjust? What is currently too rigid, and where could greater flexibility benefit the system?
Next: Be Locally Attuned and Responsive →
03

Be Locally Attuned and Responsive

Be Locally Attuned and Responsive means fitting into and integrating with the surrounding environment. It achieves this by leveraging recurring phenomena and processes; building with materials that are abundant and accessible while drawing on freely available energy; creating mutual benefit through win-win interactions; and using recurring information flows to adjust a response appropriately.

Reflection prompts
  • How does your system operate in ways that fit within and are integrated with its immediate local context?
  • How does your system leverage recurring phenomena and processes?
  • How does your system build with materials that are abundant and accessible, while drawing on freely available energy?
  • How does your system create mutual benefit through win-win interactions and partnerships?
  • How does your system use recurring information flows to adjust its response appropriately?
What is your system already doing well to fit within and respond to its context?
Where is your system disconnected from its context, or not harnessing what is already available to it?
Next: Integrate Development with Growth →
04

Integrate Development with Growth

Integrate Development with Growth means balancing investments to move toward an enriched system. It achieves this by creating conditions that enable components to interact with one another and the local context; constructing the system one unit at a time; and organizing modular units within larger units to build increasing complexity.

Reflection prompts
  • How does your system balance investment in growth with investment in strengthening and enriching itself?
  • How does your system create the conditions that enable its components to interact with one another and the local context?
  • How does your system construct itself one unit at a time?
  • How does your system organize modular units within larger units to build increasing complexity?
What is your system already doing well to balance development with growth?
Where does your system need to recalibrate resources in order to create a better balance between development and growth?
Next: Be Resourceful with Material and Energy →
05

Be Resourceful with Material and Energy

Be Resourceful with Material and Energy means optimizing the use of resources and taking advantage of opportunities. It achieves this by shaping structures and patterns according to the function they need to perform; designing solutions that meet multiple needs at once; achieving the needed performance with minimal energy by taking advantage of conditions that reduce energy demand; and keeping resources circulating through connected flows so they remain available for reuse.

Reflection prompts
  • How does your system optimize its use of materials and energy while harnessing opportunities?
  • How does your system shape its structures and patterns according to the function they need to perform?
  • How does your system design solutions that meet multiple needs at once?
  • How does your system achieve the needed performance with minimal energy, by taking advantage of conditions that reduce energy demand?
  • How does your system keep resources circulating through connected flows so they remain available for reuse?
What is your system already doing well in how it uses resources and takes advantage of opportunities?
Where is your system using more resources than necessary, or failing to make full use of resources already available?
Next: Step Three →
Step 3 · Your entry-point move

Step three: your entry-point move

You have now looked at your system through five deep patterns found across all living systems. The point is not to fix everything. It is to find the single most accessible place to start — the move that is available to you now, not the one that would require everything else to change first.

Looking over this audit, identify which Life’s Principle you believe will provide the most benefit to your system if you invested in it now, and one immediate step you can take to begin that work.

01
Evolve to Survive
Nothing noted yet.
Revisit
02
Adapt to Changing Conditions
Nothing noted yet.
Revisit
03
Be Locally Attuned and Responsive
Nothing noted yet.
Revisit
04
Integrate Development with Growth
Nothing noted yet.
Revisit
05
Be Resourceful with Material and Energy
Nothing noted yet.
Revisit
Something you could start within the next two weeks.
If you want to go further

This audit tells you how your system is functioning. It doesn't tell you what to build instead.

That requires a deeper look at how living systems solve the specific functions your challenge depends on. Terradigm also offers a paid, in-depth Life's Principles tool that examines all 27 principles across form, process, and system.

If this audit surfaced gaps that point to a challenge worth addressing, the rest of Terradigm can help you move from evaluation into design.

Explore Terradigm Offerings